Luke's #1 Rule (2 page)

“Love you, honey, sleep tight.” She pulled his blanket up under Josh’s chin the way he liked it and kissed him goodnight.

After standing at their bedroom door for a minute drinking in the still life of her two sons at rest, she went into the kitchen to pack lunches for the next morning.

Her mother already stood at the kitchen counter slathering jam onto bread. Chloe pulled a couple of apples out of the fridge and washed them at the sink.

“I’m taking the job in Seattle,” Chloe said, turning off the faucet and drying the apples with a fresh towel. Today had been the first time Rob had ever gotten physical with her, but his discontent with her need for family time had been escalating for months.

Her mother sucked in a deep breath. “Is this because I’m selling the house and moving to the cottage?”

“No, Mom. Of course not.” It was partly that. She’d felt abandoned when her mom had first told her. But now, it made things easier, her conscience lighter. “It’s my job. That’s all this is about.”

“What will Spence say?”

Chloe shrugged. Her ex had remarried, had a baby on the way, and was totally immersed in his new life. She liked Spence’s wife, Bettina. She was sorry Bettina had to put up with Spence, but Chloe deserved a new life, too. She’d been living with her mom for four years, saving every penny she could. She had many, many pennies. And while her mom had been supportive and helpful, especially with the boys, it was time for everyone to move on. This had always been part of the plan.

“When will you tell the boys?”

“I’m going to wait until summer vacation.” Every day she grew more confident that the next move for her family meant accepting the position in Seattle.

“If this is about money—”

“It’s not.” It was. Chloe didn’t want her mom offering to give her the house again. She lived on a fixed income and needed the profit from the house as a cushion for her golden years. “I just need to stand on my own now. It’s time.”

The Seattle position paid enough for her to offer Stoner Spence a deal he would be unlikely to refuse. It paid enough for her to set up college funds for the boys. It paid enough for her to hire a nanny. Enough for a nice house in a good neighborhood with excellent schools, even at Seattle prices.

They finished making lunches in silence, but Chloe felt her mother’s disappointment and disapproval anyway. If her mother knew half of the stuff Spence was into, she’d call child services. Which is why Chloe didn’t tell her mom. Spence had been to rehab for pain pills and alcohol and straightened out for a while, but he’d been backsliding since the marijuana laws loosened. He said the herb calmed him. He even claimed he had a prescription for it. He smoked it in a pipe like Sherlock Holmes. Never around the boys, he promised. But she could smell the bud on his breath every time she got within an arm’s length of him.

Chloe was not opposed to pot smoking. She’d been to college. She’d experimented but didn’t like how it made her feel, the opposite of calm. So, sure, let Spence smoke his days away while his women support him. But not around her children.
And Bettina, who Chloe loved and trusted because she loved Chloe’s boys, promised that Spence never smoked around the children.

“I’ve got someone coming over tomorrow to cut down that old tree in back,” Ursula said. “He’s going to replace the fence, too. He’s going to bunk in the basement for a week.”

“A strange man is coming to stay here for a week?”

“He’s not a strange man. He’s Luke. My friend Wanda’s son. Has his own business in Blue Lake.”

Chloe nodded. She knew Wanda. She’d never met the son, but Wanda would have raised him right. And Mom’s house needed work to get it up to code.

“I always wanted you and the boys to have this house, Chloe.”

“Mom, please. I have been saving money for four years. I’m set. Honestly.” Her mom didn’t know she still paid the mortgage on Spence’s house. “Sell your house and use some of the money to go to Hawaii.”

Her mom silently wiped bread crumbs from the countertop.

“Or go crazy at the casino.” That suggestion received a reluctant chuckle.

****

Luke threw some work clothes in a duffle, loaded tools into his truck, and struck out for Detroit.

As he drove south, the scenery got less and less familiar. He’d never come downstate before, never had a cause to. Crazy traffic, stores everywhere. He spotted three Walmarts in a five mile stretch, with subdivisions, gas stations, and fast food places squashed in between. People actually chose to raise their children here. He pitied them.

Sterling Pines, just another cookie-cutter town. And there weren’t any pines that he could see, not many trees at all except those growing in people’s yards. Where were the marshlands? Where were the woods? Where was the green space? The whole picture gave him a bad feeling.

The GPS on Luke’s phone found the house, an older ranch with crab grass for lawn and shaggy overgrown shrubbery. Only a few hours south of Blue Lake, the temperature warmer, the lawns greener. He walked across the grass, and it held firm, no mud here. He went around the side of the house, checking out back. Rickety deck, ancient, rusty chain-link fence, enormous poplar that had been struck by lightning. The tree bent precariously toward the back of the house. His eyes took in the old-fashioned swing set in a far corner of the yard.

There was work here for him. He went back to the front of the house and rang the doorbell.

A goddess in blue jeans, her brown hair streaked with gold and gathered into a messy twist atop her head, answered the door. He did not expect the slam of hunger that hit his body like a blow. He tugged on the bill of his ball cap, trying to settle down. Ursula?

“Can I help you?” Venus spoke through the screen door.

He checked the address. “Are you Ursula Muscach?”

“That’s my mom.”

“Uh.” Luke stood there like an idiot. “I’m Luke Anderson. Your mom wanted some landscaping work done?”

The goddess in blue jeans nodded but still didn’t open the door. “Yeah, she mentioned something about that. I’ll give her a call to see what’s going on.”

She left him on the porch, just like a smart city girl should.

She came back a few minutes later with a phone to her ear.

“Well, he’s here now.”

She rolled her eyes at him.

She listened for a few minutes and then said, “Fine,” before disconnecting. She didn’t seem happy about it, but she opened the door and let him in.

“You’re Luke? From Blue Lake?”

He nodded, hardly hearing what she said because her voice so low and sweet caught and held him.

“I’m Chloe. We have a cottage there. I love your summers.”

“It’s a great little town.” The only thing missing: a woman just like Chloe.

Chloe nodded.

He gazed down at her bare feet. Her toenails were painted a light shade of pink, each toe perfect, like a little pearl.

“So you’re staying with us?”

The business person in Luke stepped out to take the place of the love-struck teenager. “I need to write up an estimate, and if she’s cool with that, I’ll get the job done.”

“Oh, she’ll be cool with it.” Chloe’s voice had an edge he didn’t understand, but, hey, city girl. Who knew? He followed her from the living room into the kitchen.

“She wanted me to show you your room. It’s down here.”

He followed Chloe down the stairs into a knotty-pine paneled basement, a bar with a few stools at one end, a sofa under the high, tiny window, and a desk with a laptop and stacks of papers on another wall.

Chloe walked to the closed door across from the desk and threw it open. “Your bed. Shower’s around the corner.”

He kept a blank face so she wouldn’t know his thoughts right now. “It’s fine. Great. Thanks. I’ll take it. No problem. Perfect.” Luke babbled when he was nervous, and his feelings about what he wanted to do with Chloe in that shower she’d mentioned made him more than nervous. He hadn’t felt this alive in years, and now, pow. Wow. So good to be himself again, so good to be interested in a pretty woman. Even though they were in the basement, everything seemed brighter.

And he had a feeling she got the same rush. He could swear she’d blushed at his inept and overly expressive response to her. She went over to the desk and shut the laptop. Then she piled papers on it and started back up the stairs. “I usually work down here, but I’ll move everything to my room.”

“I don’t want to put you out,” he said. Today was his lucky day, and if she lived with her mother, as she seemed to, the coming week would be his lucky week. Was she moving up to Blue Lake with her mom? How excellent would that be?

“No problem.” She started up the steps. “You can help me with the desk later.” It was a small desk. She came back down for the lamp and chair, and he picked up the desk and followed her upstairs. He would follow her anywhere.

“Thanks,” she said, when they got to her bedroom. She pointed toward an empty corner, and he set the desk there. “I’ve got some work to do, so if you’ll excuse me.” She turned her back to him and opened her laptop.

Her curt dismissal froze him in place. He became hyper-aware of her unmade bed. The sheets were white with tiny pink flowers. A nightgown, baby blue, tangled in the blankets.

She must have noticed him not moving because she turned her head and said over her shoulder, “The garage is open. We’ll park our cars on the street so you can have access. If you need a place to write up your estimate, feel free to use the kitchen table.” She actually made a motion as if to shoo him from the room.

He left the room but stood in the doorway. “When will Ursula be home?”

She let out a huff of breath and turned away from the desk to face him. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“What?”

“Our moms. They’re summer friends. We have a cottage in Blue Lake. They plotted this. This setup. That’s why my mom isn’t here. They want us to be alone for a while.”

As soon as she said it, he knew it was true.

Chapter Two

Chloe sat waiting for Spence in the coffee shop halfway between their houses. Late, as usual. And why? All he did was surf the web, eat junk food, and smoke pot. When he’d first lost his Realtor job back when the economy tanked, she had to build a career. Her starting salary had barely kept them in their beautiful house. The only house her boys had ever known.

Then she got the online porn bills and saw how much money Spence took out of the bank for “walking around” cash. Really? He needed three hundred dollars a week? For what? He never even tried to find other work, just slid into depression and addiction. More than one addiction. She got a raise and sent him to rehab. He came out clean, but she’d already taken the children and gone.

Apparently, she caused every damn thing that had gone wrong in his life. Fine. She’d been fed up anyway. And to this day, he still let the women in his life support him and his habits.

Speak of the stoned, Spence blew in wearing a tan trench coat she’d bought him the first year of their marriage.

“What’s so important we had to meet today?” Spence ran fingers through thinning floppy hair. Surprise, he didn’t smell like weed. He continued to finger his stringy hair; he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

The thought of Luke’s thick blonde hair flitted through her mind. Why was she thinking about Luke now? Obviously way more fun than looking at her wreck of an ex.

She pulled herself back to the present, highly unpleasant moment. Something was wrong with Spence. Did people have withdrawals from marijuana? She wasn’t sure what other drugs he dabbled in. Pregnant and blissful Bettina, too loyal to tell. He picked at a piece of lint on his wrinkled shirt for five minutes or maybe an hour. True, he didn’t smell like pot, but a distinctive unwashed body odor, almost as bad, wafted her way.

Maybe he’d decided to detox. Good for him. According to Bettina, since his return from the latest stint in rehab, he started the morning with a loaded bowl and went back for more all through the day. Doctor Feelgood’s orders. No doubt Spence had failed to mention he had a problem with addiction. Not her problem. Codependent no more. It would be good for the kids not to have to witness their dad with his pills, pot, powder, and premium scotch.

“I’ve been offered a really great job.” She’d taken a half day off work to get her tasks in order. She’d visited her attorney and had a new custody agreement drawn up, allowing her to leave the state with the boys.

“Really?”

Anything to do with money made Spence’s ears perk. In a few months, he’d have a new baby to think about. Ironic. He and Chloe had gone to the boys’ school together to talk to their teachers about the divorce. They wanted to present a united front and wanted the teachers to know that if the boys acted out in any way, they wanted to be notified. The school principal attended the meeting. Not too many months after the divorce, she’d married Spence. Bettina. Nice lady, bad taste in men.

“It’s out of state.” Best to put it all on the table.

“No.” His first response always, just no. She waited and sure enough, after a beat he asked, “Where?”

“Seattle.”

“Absolutely not. I’ll never see them.” He talked fast, tripping over words, still not looking at her. She noticed that old feeling, that Mom feeling, like he was doing something wrong and hiding it from her. She had to get her kids away from him.

He’d seen the boys a total of three times this year, and it was already mid-April. It killed her a little bit every time she saw their disappointed faces when he cancelled a scheduled visitation, usually at the last minute with a paper thin excuse.

“If I take this job, I’ll be able to fund their college trusts on my own.” Not that he’d ever put one dime in the accounts.

“What’s the offer?”

“Enough.” She knew he meant salary, not position. She gave him the paperwork that freed him from any financial obligation toward their sons forever with a tasty carrot thrown in. She still owned the home he and Bettina lived in. She’d continued to pay the mortgage, so the boys would have their first home. Now, if he signed the custody agreement, she’d pay off the house and transfer title to Spence and Bettina. He grabbed the papers and scanned the document quickly. Then again.